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Monday, October 29, 2012

An American Military Tragedy: The Collapse of American Generals Since The 1960’s: Leading to the Death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and many more needless casualties.

The recent confluence of three unrelated factors compelled me to the write this particular blog. The first, is the continuing silence and distortion from the military and the White House concerning the recent assassination of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The second factor is the statement made by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Army General Martin Dempsey, that they had ordered a ‘stand down of Special Forces’ prepositioned to assist two Seal Team Six heroes who died in the Benghazi massacre. As Panetta stated in his inevitable ignorant assertion of military history and military capability [presumably reflecting his chief advisor General Dempsey] , ’we don’t send soldiers in harm’s way when we don’t know what is going on’. His insightful order: ”stand-down of military forces”, presumably in order to avoid more confusion and further the unfortunate toll of American deaths.

The third factor that just came into play is the Wall Street Journal's review of a book written by Thomas E. Ricks, the Washington Post Pentagon Correspondent, who insightfully delineated the decline of the quality of our American Generals and Admirals since the 1960’s in his book entitled, The Generals.

His premise is simple. Basically American Generals during WWII were given a few months in which they could prove their mettle, be killed in battle, or wounded, or replaced. This basic principle of America military leadership- either succeed in what you do or get the hell out was postulated by the greatest war and peace time general America has ever had and that was General George C. Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff from 1939 to 1945.

In my professional opinion as a strategist and operative, Marshall, is probably the most under-rated General that America was fortunate to have had. He planned the execution of two simultaneous wars in both the Pacific and in Europe and executed them successfully in less time than either the disastrous wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. He was so modest and loyal to the country that he allowed President Franklin Roosevelt to promote his Aide-de-Camp, a Colonel who had never seen combat but was an expert on interpersonalrelationships to become Commander of Allied Troops in Europe—General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The rest is history!

The author concludes correctly that for the next sixty years the only general to rise to any note of worthiness was a General whom I had admired for over the past ten years—General David Petraeus.

The author contends, as I have over the decades, that both our military and intelligence service –now populated by ex-generals—that without the possibility of generals being relieved of command, ‘the Marshallian approach to leadership—emphasizing a relentless expectation of success and unwillingness to accept anything less’ -does not work.

I then add the premise that it also leads to military cowardliness and ‘faulty group think and delay’ as evidenced in the ‘stand down’ order by Army General Dempsey, USMC General John R. Allen and Admiral McRaven, Chief Commander of SOCOM , [Special Forces]. Accordingly, Marshall and I [former International Crises Manager and Hostage Negotiator, ex-USN Captain] would have dismissed these military officers ASAP.

As the President should do right now!…Obama must dismiss these incompetent, deadly generals, hold them accountable!

But that will not happen because our civilian leaders—SecState Hillary Clinton [an exemplar of political corruption, collusion, incompetence and deceit]; Ex- Lieutenant General USAF James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence[ex-Bush Jr sychophant]; and clearly one of our usual suspects in the White House, John O. Brennan [a thirty year CIA Station Chief stalwart who specialty is in allowing the American soldiers to die in the Khobar explosions in Saudi Arabia and as well as facilitating the “stand down’ of 9/11--- a true American patriot,etc.] are all accomplices in collusion [not conspiracy] of CYA for each other.

More importantly their collective incompetence compounded by the lies of Ambassador Rice [a once talented individual], Vice President Biden [a legislative parasite who is related by marriage to another piece of incompetence John Donilon—National Security Advisor] will assure that whatever investigation is conducted is already as tainted a tin can of botulism.

But back to the major point of what happened to the best and brightest of our generals?

I have worked with senior military officers over four decades and of course by probability alone they vary in quality and capability. But for the most part, I have found them to be less tutored in military strategy, severely under-educated in world affairs and general world politics and increasingly concerned about their promotions and pensions.

The promotions and pensions issue came forth several times when I would encourage officers to defy their civilian authorities when the orders made no sense nor accomplished any tactical/strategic goals. It was obvious in my senior tutorial classes at the National Defense University how fearful most military personnel were of personal initiative, bold moves, creative thinking and aggressive actions. In fact, in both practice and theory, I found the more senior an officer became the less courageous he appeared in the field of action whether it be battle or defiance of incompetent civilian orders –from Bush jr, Clinton, Obama.

I discovered as a single operator in the field, that the military officers at the level of captain and major were far more forthcoming and less threatened by the system. I had a friend who trained with me at MIT, a formidable Ranger who became a warrior and scholar in both Vietnam and as a Professor at West Point. However, he didn’t play the “suck up” game - he intimidated his superiors with his intellect and directness. Result: dismissed once he reached the level of Colonel. In the meantime, the most incompetent General I had ever met Gen Westmoreland was promoted by LBJ to the point that he was allowed to kill thousands of our troops and wound even more thousands.

So the generals since Marshall and Eisenhower were not only incompetent, they were DEADLY. Like physicians who continuously commit malpractice- innocent people die. I see these incompetent generals promoted in an endless procession of meaningless jobs with fancy, convoluted titles—all signifying nothing….p.s. they make a lot of money!

Recently at the Council On Foreign Relations Meeting, a warehouse of miscreants, dysfunctional individuals, wannabe intellectuals, and mendicants with fancy-sounding titles, all underwritten by the military-industrial complex and it’s banking/financial offshoots, I confronted General Dempsey in front of a large audience asking him what I knew he would bullshit me about.

“When would you, general, ever challenge a civilian decision that you, as a military officer, did not approve of?”

Like the good Irish choir boy that he was once, he sang the ‘Ave Maria’ in the high octaves of a military eunuch.

At another meeting, I met another General who had also ‘screwed up Iraq’—ex-US Army General Abizaid, an arab-speaking military officer. The discussion centered around the problems of Syria and what would happen. Most of the people there, were CIA or other ‘experts’ in Syria and the Middle East, but Abizaid sang with the choir of incorrect ‘group thinking’ that ‘insurgents would win and we needed to support them’.

Of course, my view has been consistent since the beginning of the Civil War in Syria, having had the good fortune of having been interrogated by Dr Bashar Assad and his cronies, I had a much clearer and ‘personal’ experience which allowed me to say contrary to the collective wisdom ‘that we did not, do not belong in Syria’. Bashar would remain under the aegis of Putin and Erdogan and Saudi Arabia would have to be reined in.

Now back to the blog and the need to seriously curtail our generals and admirals before they created more harm and deaths. Our military has become completely dysfunctional- intervening in non-existent wars, making more enemies than we originally had, and creating a major surplus of severely injured soldiers who have been quaintly called “wounded warriors” when in fact many of them never even saw an enemy before they were blown up by an IED.

But back to the surplus of ineffectual generals and senior military personnel…..

The author, Thomas E. Ricks, clearly pinpoints General Thomas Franks, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq 2003 as strategically and tactically incompetent, never really understanding what the two unnecessary wars would entail and what the consequences of the war would be. Of course, he was abetted by the “Ivan the Terrible” Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Stephen Hadley, Condilezza Rice and the incomparable epitome of vacuous intelligence replete with hubris and military ignorance –our favorite, ‘US murderer of the 21st century’along with VP Cheney—“stand down” Sec Def Ronald Rumsfeld.

Along with Tommy Franks as one of our most incompetent generals, the author of the book also points to Ricardo Sanchez—our ‘token Hispanic’—who ‘micromanaged’ the war and like Franks was ‘strategically illiterate’. Then he fortunately mentions USAF General Richard Meyers(a real criminal) who conveniently made himself disappear but was the one of the main strategist of the 9/11 Stand down and allowed the ‘enemy planes’ to attack the WTC. Also, let’s not forget , he also provided the ‘false flags’ episodes all over the country making certain that our planes at Andrews Air Force Base on DefCon One Alert never intercepted his planes which delivered a missile into the pentagon, later described as a ‘ full –sized Boeing’ aircraft.

Dear readers, you get the idea how dangerous our so called ‘honored generals’ have really become. They are criminals!

I strongly suggest that every general and officer anywhere near the 9/11 stand down be interrogated according to the military code of justice. Accordingly, I can provide even more names of civilians and generals and ex-generals in Paul Wolfowitz’s Shop of Horrors who massacred our American civilians and American soldiers.

In short, America, if we don’t down size our military, eliminate the old fashioned promotion of military officers across the board, and eliminate our war colleges that are completely a waste of tax payer dollars and are not suited for 21st century Cyberwar, crises management, and the robotic age, we will not have any security whatsoever.

It’s a very hard point for me to make but I and many others involved with the military including the Thomas Ricks, have come to the disturbing conclusion that we Americans have allowed generations of cowards, military illiterates and outright murderers to run our national security in the name of protecting our country. The biggest security problem we have now is our debt.

The biggest civilian problem we have now is our dysfunctional military, intelligence and our bloated military-industrial complex which is neither military but very complex in it’s ability to extract our money from congress for worthless tanks, that no one uses, outdated B1 bombers, that rest quiescently in Arizona and APCs that have been death traps for our troops.

Get rid of our generals! Hold them accountable!Arrest them. Arrest the civilians who ordered them to unnecessary wars. Denounce them as cowards. And eliminate their pensions which double when these vain heroes work for Northrup Gruman, Boeing, L3 Communications, SAIC, Mitre, etc.

It’s now up to the American public to decide what it has to do. We have at one and the same time too many wounded veterans who owe their wounds not to ‘terrorists’ but to ‘strategically illiterate, cowardly military generals, corrupt Presidents, Sec Def, Sec State and worse yet--- a disinterested American public that would prefer to become imbued with false narratives, vainglorious declarations of military victory and a Republic that is rampantly corrupt from top-down.

Rest assure, if nothing else is done, the Republic will die as the Empire will expand as more metals of false valor are handed out and more amputees filter through our decaying hospitals and cities.

I truly hope that this time I am wrong.

Oh by the way, I have resigned from the CFR. As an entrepreneur it was just too much to underwrite the parasites of a once dignified organization that had transmuted into a nursing home for the ailing, crippled policy makers and faux intellectualswho had nowhere to go but to recycle themselves into a society of solipsism, ignorance, arrogance and welfare. They, like the generals, have become completely irrelevant to our national security or the destiny of our country.

Amen! Cut the military budget! Take care of our veterans and hold these incompetent military leaders accountable for their crimes! Fire the bastards!

4 comments:

i think the two images at the top along with your line, military industrial complex, neither military but very complex sums it up! also interesting is your point regarding the buying of tanks and planes that are no longer of use and this seems to be backed up by the use of drones and other hi tech methods of warfare and if this is the direction of modern warfare then it seems obvious we need less generals! especially ones more interested in pensions and promotion!id say a blind man on a galloping horse could see that!lives are being lost on all sides needlessly because it seems to a simple man like me our leaders have lost the real art of diplomacy in favour of power and pound notes

after just posting my above comment i read an article regarding a "rogue us general arrested for activating special forces teams, ignoring libya stand down order, it involves africom commanding officer us general carter ham, its on http://www.dailysheeple.co i hope this is of interest

All you have to do is have an "uneventful" retirement and you are home free.

Principled resignation or a forced resignation and you are stuck on your military pension (because access to DOD and "good feelings" will be damaged).

Part of the problem is that the Military-Industrial Complex, re, Eisenhower's warning, is so powerful. Bi-partisan support leaves little or no checks & balances.

Right now, the U. S. military outspends the next twenty nations COMBINED every year.

There simply isn't a credible conventional threat to America's military in either full conventional warfare, counter-insurgency via Nation-states, or any other kind of warfare, where America's full military might is employed.

(Yes, Taliban has effectively resisted, but that's due to political failures, not military inadequateness in terms of military resources.)

Ron Paul was not entirely correct, particularly on his political presentation to a Republican Party raised on military might as a core principle of the party. But Ron Paul certainly was more right than wrong, I'd say 70% right, 30% wrong. But nobody is 100% right.

That's one reason (among others) I did support Ron Paul during the primary.

History: President Eisenhower cut defense spending after the Korean War by over 20% during the Cold War, where the U. S. actually did have a credible military opponent in the Soviet Union.

President Nixon cut defense spending after height of Vietnam War by over 20% during Cold War, where the U. S. actually did have a credible military opponent in the Soviet Union.

Even Reagan in second term reduced military spending by at least 5%.

With the budget & debt that undermines the U. S. national security posture, it is not lack of military spending which is a threat, it is wasteful overspending which is the threat and poor military doctrine, plus geo-political strategy which is morally bankrupt.

My assessmment (admittedly made from a position of limited knowledge and expertise) of other countries is that they would welcome a less threatening U. S. geo-political doctrine and even work with the U. S. to decrease geo-political tensions (thus, less military spending would be needed, along with a smaller general officer core -- and that's the rub these generals don't want to see).

Military and geo-political doctrine must be tailored to resources, President Eisenhower knew that, President Nixon knew that, but today's general officer core only think second career opportunities, which a reduced military budget would potentially threaten.

And a political elite bent on world hegemony.WHEN DID THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SIGN UP FOR THE GOAL & NECCESSITY OF WORLD DOMINATION?

I suggest they never did. This is an elite project done without consent of the American People.

This 'tailoring' could be done with no reduction of U. S. strategic, military capability.

In fact, likely it would improve military capability by focussing military strategists' minds, resources, and improve procurement practices.

But at this point, the military seems to be beyond reforming itself.

It can only be done by a presidential candidate who runs on military reform and then gets elected.

Didn't Marshall 'boast' of disarming Chiang Kai Chek - Chinese Nationalist leader - with the stroke of a pen in favour of Mao at the behest of the US State Department. (it being under the control of the tax exempt foundations promoting their collectivist agenda)

Assuming that the Reece committee investigation into foundations actually took place and that it is not all conspiracy theory, one can see a motive for the creation of enemies which facilitate the erosion of freedom and impoverishment, in the drive for collectivism.

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About Me

Dr. Steve Pieczenik is a critically acclaimed author of psycho-political thrillers and the co-creator of the New York Times best-selling "Tom Clancy's Op-Center" and "Tom Clancy's Net Force" book series. He is also one of the world's most experienced international crisis managers and hostage negotiators. His novels are based on his twenty years experience in resolving international crises for five U.S. administrations.